Electronic transactions involving the transfer of money and pecuniary assets are common in our society today. Goods and services are also commonly purchased over the telephone or via the Internet using credit or debit accounts with electronic authorization. Retail vendors typically accept credit and debit cards, which are verified and authorized using electronic communications methods. Nearly every significant retail vendor accepts some form of credit or debit card as remuneration for goods or services. Transactions involving a credit or debit card account require authorization from the organization that issues the card. This authorization is generally obtained at the point-of-sale by a vendor through electronic communications channels. A transaction amount is determined and the amount of the transaction along with the account identification information is transmitted to the organization, which issued the card or an authorization provider. After internal approval, the card issuer will send an authorization code to the vendor or authorization provider, which indicates that the issuer will transfer the authorized amount to the vendor at an appropriate time.
These point-of-sale authorization request devices are typically connected to the card issuers or their representatives, sometimes known as authorization processors (APs), through a conventional telephone line. Often a dedicated phone line is connected to the point-of-sale authorization device for quick access to authorization data.
Wireless communication technology has progressed rapidly in recent years. Cell phones and other long-range communication devices have proliferated and are now commonplace among consumers. As technology advances, the cost of these devices is plummeting and even more widespread use is eminent. Mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other communicators are all available on the market. Internet use is also skyrocketing with millions of new users logging on each year. Internet commerce now represents a significant portion of retail commerce and is used by millions of consumers each day.
Communications protocols exist which allow present generation electronic communications devices to interface with the Internet and access Internet resources. The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open, global specification that enables mobile wireless communications devices to access and interact with Internet information and services. WAP is a communications protocol and environment which can be built on nearly any operating system including PalmOS, EPOC, Windows CE, FLEXOS, OS/9, JavaOS and others and provides service interoperability between different device families. WAP works with most existing wireless communications networks. WAP developers operate Internet gateways specifically tailored for wireless communications device users.
By using WAP and similar technologies, vendors, news agencies, financial institutions and other providers allow cell phone and other portable communications device users to buy and sell securities, execute credit card transactions, make account transfers, make bill payments, receive and send e-mail, view news reports. These providers offer seamless integration between the Internet and wireless portable communication devices.
Wireless communication devices are also becoming commonplace in the electronics industry. Wireless networking of portable computers and associated devices is now replacing a large segment of the networking market. Another innovation in the wireless communications arena is the advent of short-range wireless networking between portable communications devices. One standard for this technology is known as Bluetooth®, and is being established by a collaborative group of communications and computing companies. Devices incorporating Bluetooth® technology will utilize a micro-chip transceiver for communications between devices. Bluetooth® devices will transmit in the previously unused 2.4 GHz range and will have a range of about 10 meters which may be extended to about 100 meters by increasing transmitter power. Bluetooth® technology promises to be a viable and economical networking solution for interconnection of cell phones, computers, printers, modems, computer peripherals, fax machines and other communications and computing devices. The size of the Bluetooth® transceiver makes it usable in devices as small as palm computers and cell phones.
Another established wireless connectivity standard is known as IrDA and employs infrared radiation to communicate between devices. IrDA is a point-to-point narrow angle, ad-hoc data transmission standard designed to operate over a distance of 0 to 1 meter at speeds of 9600 bps to 16 Mbps. It is typically used in a point-and-shoot fashion by pointing one device at another for direct data transmission.
As mentioned, personal purchasing transactions today occur under numerous unique circumstances, but several facts may be stated without contention. First, electronic payment options, including credit and debit cards have gained in popularity in recent years due to the convenience they offer. Secondly, the rise of unmanned and electronically capable Point-of-Sale (POS) machines in a great variety of locations including, airports, gas stations, travel rest stops, and elsewhere has similarly increased the demand for electronic payment. However, these electronic payment forms are encumbered by a legacy brought forth by older forms of transactions: paper receipts. While computer based purchases may be consummated with an email “receipt,” signifying the particulars of the transaction, such “in person” sales are still subject to the paper trail, where the purchaser is forced to maintain an awkward variety of papers acting as proof of completed transactions. Please note further that email receipts are less psychologically desirable for transactions, due to (a) the lack of pervasive email access while a person is conducting a remote POS transaction; (b) the delays which may accompany traditional email transactions, resulting in potential multi-minute gaps between the completion of a transaction and the acceptance of a receipt, and (c) the reluctance of users to widely share their email address due to concerns with being deluged with email “spam”. Thus, emailed receipts for remote transactions mean that the purchaser will still normally walk away with no verifiable proof or documentation of transactions that just transpired.
While electronic receipts exist in current art, they are almost entirely for the sole or joint benefit of the business, where the present art is primarily of benefit to the consumer. Consider a traveling business user who is required to account for all expenditures. This user may stop at several remote gasoline stations and vending areas while enroot between locations. Presently, most unmanned remote machines do not provide any type of receipt, and as such, the user is forced to manually document each transaction, and must later manually transfer that data to an expense accounting system. Now consider a business person who travels on a regular basis, and must repeat this process over and over again. The present art would be of great convenience to the consumer, and would provide competitive advantage to vendors employing such methods. Consider again the traveling business person who stops at a vending area where some machines are electronic receipt enabled, and some are not. It is clear that the majority of users would decide to patronize the receipt enabled machines.
There have been attempts to address this use of a paper to receipt to provide proof of a transaction. U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,540 provides systems, methods and apparatus for the generation, transmission, storage and manipulation of electronic receipts, which communicate, itemized purchase transaction information. In this system, wireless vendor devices and wireless purchaser devices which transmit electronic receipts at a point-of-sale for documentation of a purchase transaction. Further processing of the electronic receipt information may be performed with a purchaser device or with a secondary computing device after subsequent receipt transmission to that secondary device. However, this system does not provide protection against inadvertent transmissions nor does it provide confirmation to the user and vendor of the completion and accuracy of the transaction.
There remains a need for a method and system that eliminates the need for a paper receipt following a commercial transaction. This system can provide the receipt via a mechanism, which provides immediate feedback for the user, allowing both seller and purchaser to comfortably know that all transactions have been completed with full delivery and payment verification.